FORT MYERS, Fla. – It wasn’t only that endless night in Los Angeles. It was the game in New York, and the two in Houston, and the back-to-back nights out of the bullpen at Fenway Park. It was all those times he went to his manager offering to give more, despite doctors warning that this was just about all he could give.

For one magical month, Nathan Eovaldi was as good as it gets, and that October of sacrificial dominance has changed his life in ways he’ll never fully comprehend. Yet few outside the Red Sox organization have known just how much Eovaldi risked to make it happen: how a little luck and a lot of preparation finally gave way to a selfless devotion that carried Eovaldi closer and closer to the sun, no matter the consequences.

“He’s staring at his future,” Rick Porcello said. “His career, pretty much, it was right in front of him. That (upcoming) offseason, becoming a free agent, and some of the things he’s had to deal with in the past.